Merritt Clubs Blog

I’m sure by now you’ve heard that February is Heart Month. Merritt Clubs is offering many programs and classes throughout the month that support heart health and the American Heart Association. No matter your level of activity, by exercising just a couple of days during the week, you are already taking important steps to fight heart disease.

Did you know February is American Heart Month? While maintaining a healthy heart should not be restricted to just this month, we do want to use this time to help you prevent heart disease. Here are some workout tips we gathered after we spoke with Merritt Clubs Fort Avenue Fitness Director Heidi Shaneybrook.

Well, it’s mid-January: that time when resolutions begin to lose their shine and real life becomes once again…well…real life. Did you make any resolutions for the new year? How’s it going? If one of your resolutions was to get to the gym more often or to simply start working out, here’s some news that may give you a little push in the right direction. According to a recent study completed by the Cleveland Clinic, not exercising can be more detrimental to your health than smoking, diabetes, or hypertension (high blood pressure).

February is American Heart Month and we are getting heart healthy! We want to help you learn all about how to keep your heart in shape and little ways to add activity to your day. You owe it to yourself and your family to take care of your body, and it can be fun to get your body healthy.

Cardio is well-known for havingwonderful benefits for the body. It helps with weight loss, helps to control blood sugar and helps reduce fatigue. However, there is such a thing as too much cardio, and it can lead to adverse effects on the body.

Shawn Arent, director of the Rutgers University Center for Health and Human Preferences, addressed a long-time concern of people trying to get the most positive effect for their workouts. When is the best time to do cardio exercise? Is it better to do it in the morning or at night? Before or after resistance training?

Okay, so maybeBODYATTACKisn’t really dancing, at least presumably not compared toZumba or BODYJAM. But it is still a very fast-paced choreographed routine that I was not great at. And when I say not great, I mean everyone in the class was basically a professional and I just tried not to break my face.

As you probably already know, incorporating cardio into your life is important. Getting enough cardiovascular exercise is good for your heart and the rest of your body, it can provide you with more energy, and it can help you maintain a healthy weight. It can even help you lose weight, particularly when combined with a healthy diet and an overall healthy lifestyle.

Swimming laps has long been considered a great way to get a cardio work out in. Whether your swimming freestyle, backstroke, breastroke or butterfly, swimming allows you to get a full body workout in using all the major muscle groups. A typical lap swimmer will go 15-30 minutes without stopping; they have built up an effective and efficient stroke. However, swimming is more than just a great aerobic exercise.